The Mughal emperors, from the early 16th century to the early 18th
century, built and ruled the
Mughal EmpireMughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent,
mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan,
AfghanistanAfghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughals were a branch of the Timurid
dynasty of Turkic origin from what is now Uzbekistan. Their power
rapidly dwindled during the 18th century and the last of the emperors
was deposed in 1857, with the establishment of the British Raj.[1]
Mughal emperorsMughal emperors were of direct descent from
TimurTimur (generally known in
the West as Tamerlane the Great), and also affiliated with Genghis
Khan, because of Timur’s marriage with a Genghizid princess.
The Mughals also had significant Indian
RajputRajput and Persian ancestry
through marriage alliances, as emperors were born to
RajputRajput and
Persian princesses.[2][3] Only the first two Mughal emperors, Babur
and Humayun, were fully Central Asian (
Turki or what is now known as
Uzbek), whereas
AkbarAkbar was half-Persian (his mother was of Persian
origin),
JahangirJahangir was half-
RajputRajput and quarter-Persian, and Shah Jahan
was three-quarters Rajput.[4] Nevertheless, all Mughals were of Turkic
seeds.
At their Empire's greatest extent in the late 17th and early 18th
centuries, Mughals controlled much of the Indian subcontinent,
extending from
BengalBengal in the east to
KabulKabul and
SindhSindh in the west,
KashmirKashmir in the north to the
KaveriKaveri basin in the south.[5] Its
population at the time has been estimated as between 110 and 150
million (a quarter of the world's population), over a territory of
more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles).[6]

Genealogy of the Mughal Dynasty. Only principal offsprings of each
emperor are provided in the chart.

The
Mughal EmpireMughal Empire (also referred to as Baburid Empire, Baburid
Dynasty) was founded by Zahiriddin Muhammad Babur, a Timurid prince
and ruler from
TuranTuran or Turkistan, i.e. Central Asia (Uzbekistan).
BaburBabur was a direct descendant to the Turkic Emperor
TimurTimur on his
father's side and also had links to Chagatai, the second son of the
Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, on his mother’s side.[7] Ousted from his
ancestral domains in
TurkistanTurkistan by Sheybani Khan, the 14-year old
Prince
BaburBabur turned to
IndiaIndia to satisfy his ambitions. He established
himself in
KabulKabul and then pushed steadily southward into
IndiaIndia from
AfghanistanAfghanistan through the Khyber Pass.[7] Babur's forces occupied much
of northern
IndiaIndia after his victory at Panipat in 1526.[7] The
preoccupation with wars and military campaigns, however, did not allow
the new emperor to consolidate the gains he had made in India.[7] The
instability of the empire became evident under his son, Humayun, who
was driven out of
IndiaIndia and into Persia by rebels.[7] Humayun's exile
in Persia established diplomatic ties between the Safavid and Mughal
Courts, and led to increasing West Asian cultural influence in the
Mughal court. The restoration of Mughal rule began after Humayun’s
triumphant return from Persia in 1555, but he died from a fatal
accident shortly afterwards.[7] Humayun's son, Akbar, succeeded to the
throne under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped consolidate the Mughal
Empire in India.[7]
Through warfare and diplomacy,
AkbarAkbar was able to extend the empire in
all directions, and controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent
north of the
GodavariGodavari river. He created a new class of nobility loyal
to him from the military aristocracy of India's social groups,
implemented a modern government and supported cultural
developments.[7] At the same time
AkbarAkbar intensified trade with
European trading companies. The Indian historian
Abraham EralyAbraham Eraly wrote
that foreigners were often impressed by the fabulous wealth of the
Mughal court, but the glittering court hid darker realities, namely
that about a quarter of the empire's gross national product was owned
by 655 families while the bulk of India's 120 million people lived in
appalling poverty.[8] After suffering what appears to have been an
epileptic seizure in 1578 while hunting tigers, which he regarded as a
religious experience,
AkbarAkbar grew disenchanted with Islam, and came to
embrace a syncretistic mixture of Hinduism and Islam.[9]
AkbarAkbar allowed
free expression of religion and attempted to resolve socio-political
and cultural differences in his empire by establishing a new religion,
Din-i-Ilahi, with strong characteristics of a ruler cult.[7] He left
his successors an internally stable state, which was in the midst of
its golden age, but before long signs of political weakness would
emerge.[7] Akbar's son, Jahangir, ruled the empire at its peak, but he
was addicted to opium, neglected the affairs of the state, and came
under the influence of rival court cliques.[7] During the reign of
Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, the culture and splendour of the luxurious
Mughal court reached its zenith as exemplified by the Taj Mahal.[7]
The maintenance of the court, at this time, began to cost more than
the revenue.[7]
Shah Jahan's eldest son, the liberal Dara Shikoh, became regent in
1658, as a result of his father's illness. However, a younger son,
Aurangzeb, allied with the Islamic orthodoxy against his brother, who
championed a syncretistic Hindu-Muslim religion and culture, and
ascended to the throne.
AurangzebAurangzeb defeated Dara in 1659 and had him
executed.[7] Although
Shah JahanShah Jahan fully recovered from his illness,
AurangzebAurangzeb declared him incompetent to rule and had him imprisoned.
During Aurangzeb's reign, the empire gained political strength once
more, but his religious conservatism and intolerance undermined the
stability of Mughal society.[7]
AurangzebAurangzeb expanded the empire to
include almost the whole of South Asia, but at his death in 1707, many
parts of the empire were in open revolt.[7] Aurangzeb's attempts to
reconquer his family's ancestral lands in Central Asia -
TuranTuran were
not successful while his successful conquest of the Deccan region
proved to be a Pyrrhic victory that cost the empire heavily in both
blood and treasure.[10] A further problem for
AurangzebAurangzeb was the army
had always been based upon the land-owning aristocracy of northern
IndiaIndia who provided the cavalry for the campaigns, and the empire had
nothing equivalent to the Janissary corps of the Ottoman Empire.[11]
The long and costly conquest of the Deccan had badly dented the "aura
of success" that surrounded Aurangzeb, and from the late 17th century
onwards, the aristocracy become increasing unwilling to provide forces
for the empire's wars as the prospect of being rewarded with land as a
result of a successful war was seen as less and less likely.[12]
Furthermore, the fact that at the conclusion of the conquest of the
Deccan,
AurangzebAurangzeb had very selectively rewarded some of the noble
families with confiscated land in the Deccan had left those
aristocrats who received no confiscated land as reward and for whom
the conquest of the Deccan had cost dearly, feeling badly disgruntled
and unwilling to participate in further campaigns.[13] Aurangzeb's
son, Shah Alam, repealed the religious policies of his father, and
attempted to reform the administration. However, after his death in
1712, the Mughal dynasty sank into chaos and violent feuds. In the
year 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne.[7]
During the reign of Muhammad Shah, the empire began to break up, and
vast tracts of central
IndiaIndia passed from Mughal to Maratha hands.
Mughal warfare had always been based upon heavy artillery for sieges,
heavy cavalry for offensive operations and light cavalry for
skirmishing and raids.[10] To control a region, the Mughals had always
sought to occupy a strategic fortress in some region, which would
serve as a nodal point from which the Mughal army would emerge to take
on any enemy that challenged the empire.[10] This system was not only
expensive, but also made the army somewhat inflexible as the
assumption was always the enemy would retreat into a fortress to be
besieged or would engage in a set-piece decisive battle of
annihilation on open ground.[10] The militantly Hindu Marathas were
expert horsemen who refused to engage in set-piece battles, but rather
engaged in campaigns of guerrilla warfare, a war of raids, ambushes
and attacks upon the Mughal supply lines.[10] The Marathas were unable
to take the Mughal fortresses via storm or formal siege as they lacked
the artillery, but by constantly intercepting supply columns, they
were able to starve Mughal fortresses into submission.[10] Successive
Mughal commanders refused to adjust their tactics and develop an
appropriate counter-insurgency strategy, which led to the Mughals
losing more and more ground to the Maratha.[10] The Indian campaign of
Nader ShahNader Shah of Persia culminated with the
Sack of DelhiSack of Delhi and shattered
the remnants of Mughal power and prestige,[7] as well as drastically
accelerating its decline and alarming other far-off invaders,
including the later British. Many of the empire's elites now sought to
control their own affairs, and broke away to form independent
kingdoms.[7] The Mughal Emperor, however, continued to be the highest
manifestation of sovereignty. Not only the Muslim gentry, but the
Maratha, Hindu, and Sikh leaders took part in ceremonial
acknowledgements of the emperor as the sovereign of India.[14]
In the next decades, the Afghans, Sikhs, and Marathas battled against
each other and the Mughals, only to prove the fragmented state of the
empire. The Mughal Emperor
Shah Alam IIShah Alam II made futile attempts to
reverse the Mughal decline, and ultimately had to seek the protection
of outside powers. In 1784, the Marathas under
Mahadji ScindiaMahadji Scindia won
acknowledgement as the protectors of the emperor in Delhi, a state of
affairs that continued until after the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
Thereafter, the British East
IndiaIndia Company became the protectors of
the Mughal dynasty in Delhi.[14] After a crushed rebellion which he
nominally led in 1857-58, the last Mughal, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was
deposed by the British government, who then assumed formal control of
a large part of the former empire,[7] marking the start of the British
Raj.
List of Mughal Emperors[edit]

Humayun
ہمایوں‬
Nasir-ud-din Muhammad Humayun
نصیر الدین محمد ہمایوں‬
17 March 1508
26 December 1530&Nbsp;– 17 May 1540
9 years 4 months 21 days or 112 months 21 days or 490 weeks 0 days or
3430 days and 11 months 5 days or 11 months 5 days or 48 weeks 3 days
or 339 days Total 3,769 days
22 February 1555 - 27 January 1556

27 January 1556 (aged 48)
HumayunHumayun was overthrown in 1540 by
Sher Shah SuriSher Shah Suri of the Suri dynasty
but returned to the throne in 1555 after the death of Islam Shah Suri
(Sher Shah Suri's son and successor).

29 April 1719 (aged 33)
Granted a firman to the East
IndiaIndia Company in 1717 granting them
duty-free trading rights for Bengal, strengthening their posts on the
east coast. The firman or decree helped British East
IndiaIndia company to
import goods into
BengalBengal without paying customs duty to the
government.

26 April 1748 (aged 45)
Got rid of the Syed Brothers. Fought a long war with the Marathas,
losing Deccan and
MalwaMalwa in the process. Suffered the invasion of Nader
Shah of Persia in 1739. He was the last emperor to possess effective
control over the empire.

Note:The Mughal Emperors practised polygamy. Besides their wives, they
also had a number of concubines in their harem, who produced children.
This makes it difficult to identify all the offspring of each
emperor.[19]
Family tree[edit]
See also: List of the mothers of the Mughal Emperors
Family tree of the first seven Mughal emperors: